White Paper: User Persona API (UP-API) from Tranxition

It’s often assumed that personal computers are generic and not deeply customized. Another regular misconception is that all data is stored on network drives. And the most prevalent assumption, in the end, is that users can recustomize a machine quickly.

Tranxition customer data and data from Gartner Group suggest that each user set of customizations, called a ‘persona,’ is worth between $600-$2000 per user. Not included in that number is the user disruption during a migration or the long term productivityopportunity missed in not backing up persona. User investment and persona management often in the past did not come into consideration until the help desk tickets and performance reviews came in after a migration.

Another opportunity for understanding the value of persona is in the recovery of a personal computer or network after a malware event. PC personality is an important asset to the user, and like any asset, it will be constantly protected, preserved and transported to new hardware or operating systems.“Service providers and enterprise software firms need the ability to fully integrate persona into their user experiences,” states Sean Taylor, Tranxition CTO.

Tranxition preserves, protects and transports user customization assets. Device persona is complex, as there are thousands of data elements scattered all over the device. Currently, only some migration applications capture only some preferences or metadata that are easily found move easily between OS and application versions; however, most do not. “Tranxition’s technology has the intelligence to find and manage thousands of preferences and metadata files across all versions, simply and easily,” says Kelly Mackin, Founder and Chief Operating Officer. “Tranxition has now opened up computer persona for a wider range of use cases. Enterprise software vendors can now deploy services that support disaster recovery, backup and restore as well as computer migration between and within systems. Until now, people could only retrieve their files. Now they can retrieve their personas as well.”

With extensive built-in support for persistent desktop settings from Windows 2000 through to Windows 8.1, UP-API capably and deeply supports all applications commonly used by small through large organizations. It supports most directory structures, automatically converts cross-version settings and is simple to set-up and automate. UP-API enables custom rules for data and settings transfer, redirects files/folders and settings, and is easy to include or exclude file management, use tokens, wild cards, precedence and move custom application files or file types. When upgrading to a new OS or replacing a failed PC, common concerns have typically been over extended user down-time and rising costs for help-desk response post-migration. Gartner studies show that users are unproductive for 4-8 hours during/after migration. Microsoft estimates that traditional methods for upgrading to new operating systems cost $1000 per PC, and help desk calls increase 40% after upgrades. There has got to be a better way. And now there is.

UP-API can also be applied to recovery from malware. Signatures in Intrusion and Patch tools are updated, re-imaged with a known clean environment, and Personality files are scanned/scrubbed with other intrusion software. Better yet, let UP-API be an integral component of a proactive solution and use it to wipe, re-image and inject persona regularly. “User Persona API makes capturing and restoring persona simple, with only a few lines of code required for simple installations. It also empowers developers to rapidly deliver deep customization. This kind of integration enables cloud, backup and ITAM/ITSM developers to customize persona management for their specific policy and application frameworks.” – Sean Taylor, CTO, Tranxition.

We are experts at locating Persona elements, capturing and protecting it.

“Tranxition is doing things that no one else is doing,” says Robert Enderle, Enderle Group. “Firms such as Tranxition help slash the personal, corporate, and financial issues associated with computer migration and backup by including persona as a necessary step.”With over 10,000 settings for interacting with your PC, including complex metadata and thousands of data files and unique directory structures, UP-API is in good company. With elements often scattered everywhere in obvious and obscure locations, migration becomes a challenge for most programs out there. Different software versions locate customizations and forms. Included is a full-feature library that enables backup, ITAM and ITSM vendors to capture and manage persona.

We include support for all major applications and Windows operating systems (including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1, including 32 and 64 bits) Microsoft Office versions 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013, all major browsers and all other applications. Our goal is for persona to be considered a standard and integral component for any backup solution and benefit to restoration, disaster recovery and migration services. We are also seeking recognition that asset management and systems management vendors need to include persona as an important element; the financial benefits are definitely there,with savings estimated between $300 and $700 per device.

Target markets for UP-API include ITAM/ITSM, Enterprise ISV, Backup and Restore, SaaS and Cloud services such as Storage and ITSM/ ITAM. Backup today looks very similar to backup in the 1990’s. Although we have cloud storage, the backup algorithms capture directories, files and file types. User Persona API enables backup vendors to include persona.

About Tranxition

Tranxition pioneered the industry with award-winning products such as Migrate7 and Migration Studio. Migrate7version 8.6 manages persona migrations and backups and offers deep support for file and persona capture and migration. Migrate7 is used by Fortune 500 companies all across the world, and just some of our vendor partners include Frontrange and BMC Software. Migration Studio has a full-featured development environment for developing content for new application and OS persona elements to be captured. This is a free tool.

Tranxition was founded in 1998 by Kelly Mackin and Gordon Reilly. Since then we have pioneered the concept of User Persona and have produced award-winning products such as Personality Tranxport, LiveManage and AdaptivePersona. Our technology abstracts user persona from computer hardware and enables user persona to be managed as an asset for backup, migration and corporate policy, offering up a viable and strategic migration and backup solution.

The software described in this document is furnished under a license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license. No responsibility is assumed for the use or reliability of software or equipment that is not supplied by Tranxition Corporation or its affiliated companies.

Restricted Rights: Use, duplication or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227 7013.

Migration Manager and the Tranxition logo are trademarks of Tranxition Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.